Dark and Stormy night on Man 'O War Cay, Abaco

A Dark and Stormy is a great drink. I could use several tonight. But all we have is a dark and stormy night, with the first major cold front of the season blowing through the Abacos right now. After a fairly mild day, the winds picked up around 5pm, and by 6 we had winds 30kts with gusts up to 45, lightening every five seconds (mostly cloud to cloud, so little thunder) and very heavy rain which even blew small waterfalls down through the Dorade vents in the heavy gusts. On the satellite "radar" view we're able to see that the rains are almost over, but the winds are forecast to be above 25kts all night. So I figured what the heck, why not upload our latest batch of photos, since we have a decent wifi connection, and share them with you.  And view the video I took this evening with the lightening.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandjcornwell/sets/

We pulled into Man 'O War Cay on Tuesday and were so impressed with the marina facilities here we decided not to go on to Green Turtle Cay as originally planned. Man 'O War is a small cay which is at the far NE corner of the Bamahas. It is about 5 water miles from Marsh Harbour, the main town on Great Abaco, and Hope Town, the small village with the distinctive white and red striped light house. We have gone for some great walks! North of town, on the Queen's Highway (every island has one), we had to be careful that we didn't run into a golf cart. It goes from cement to dirt and is only wide enough for a golf cart, and typical of most islands, is the only street that runs the whole length of the island. We came upon a narrow part of the island where you could see both Abaco Sound and the Atlantic. It was a calm day, and absolutely beautiful. There are some pics from that walk. 

This island is very religious, they will allow you to bring your wine to dinner and will provide glasses, but don't sell any liquor anywhere. We saw several people coming in on the ferry for the holidays with cases of wine. Many of the people on the island are descendants of the loyalists who 'escaped' the US in the 1760's. If your name isn't Albury or Sweeting, then you're a newcomer. Like most of the Bahamas, it seems everyone is everyone's cousin. The permanent population here is about 300 people.

We'll leave Mystique on a mooring here and fly back to Florida on Tuesday to spend Christmas with my Mom and Dad in Bradenton. We've had a relaxing time in decent weather (until tonight) and met some interesting fellow cruisers and several locals. One, Hartley Albury, has lived on the island all his life and still makes the most beautifully hand-crafted wooden boats - a craft he learned from his dad and grandfather. One of his stunning brand new boats was on the ways today with flags flying from the mast and is due to be launched tomorrow morning. Should be great fun.

Jan and I are delighted with our cruise this fall. After some initial frustration with 'mechanical opportunities' Mystique has been running in very good condition with all systems functioning well. That has been a huge relief and allowed us to spend a lot of time relaxing, going ashore and meeting new friends. Also, the weather has been refreshingly cooperative with clear days, mild winds behind us and highs in the low-mid 80's. The water temperature is still around 80 so swimming and snorkeling have been enjoyable.

We plan to return to Mystique in April and cruise again for a couple of months. But we haven't decided whether to stay in these interesting and beautiful Bahamian cruising grounds (it's hard to imagine anyplace better) or return to the East Coast and head north. We'd like to spend time between the Chesapeake and Maine some day. Either way, we'd love to have some crew visits, so let us know when you can join us!

Hope Town Harbour, Abaco

Spanish Wells was a very locals/fishing community and supposedly accounts for over 50% of all the lobster caught in the Bahamas. Not as warm and friendly a place as Eleuthera of Exuma. We had Mystique at a marina overnight to fill up with water and fully charge the batteries. We walked around the entire island (about 2-3 miles) and were just flabbergasted at the extent to which these people decorate their houses, trees, shrubs, signs, and anything else that's exposed outdoors, with lights and Christmas decorations (plastic Santas, reindeer, elves, candy canes, and home-made sea-life of all kinds, plus inflatables of the same which they unplug during the day so they sat limp in the yards). And plastic manger scenes also, just by the way! It was amazing and we'll post some photos soon.

Tuesday afternoon we had a HUGE rainstorm for about an hour, and then moved Mystique 5mi. out to Royal Island, close to the NW tip of Eleuthera and near our jumping off point the next morning to Great Abaco. We didn't get much sleep, both because the wind was howling in the rigging and because we were a little nervous about our 9 hour sail in the open Atlantic. We weighed anchor Wednesday morning at 6:30, just as the sky was brightening. We raised our jenny, went through the cut in the reef and out into the Atlantic. As we got further from shore with the wind right on our stern we found significant waves coming from three directions at once. So it got rocky and rolly and the lessening breeze from astern did not let the sails stabilize the boat much.

We soon saw a HUGE cruise ship coming around the northern tip of Eleuthera straight at us heading for Nassau. It was close enough that we saw the name "MSC" on the side which turns out to be an Italian cruise ship company. Looking at MSC's departure schedule we learned it was the "POESIA", 1275 cabins, 3013 guests, 964' in length and 93,000 tonnes and coming from the Caribbean. Again let me say, BIG! There were also several freighters that came within six miles of Mystique, all of which were tracked on our RADAR. After getting further north of the New Providence Channel around 10am, the shipping traffic disappeared and we just settled in for the slog up to our cut into the Sea of Abaco shallow banks.

It was a clear day with winds in the 15kt range, so things could certainly have been worse. But the confused 6-8' waves kept us from being too comfortable until we made the cut around 3:30. It is always a great comfort to come in from the ocean into calm waters with land around! We found a quiet secluded anchorage, went for a snorkel and had a good night sleep. That evening we watched the water around the boat in amazement as small patches of light came and went - phosphor-luminescence from some sea creatures (jelly fish?).

Thursday morning we caught Chris Parkers' weather on single sideband at 6:30 as usual, and then for the first time the VHF radio "Cruisers Net" at 8:15 which carries all the news for cruisers from Marsh Harbour for the Abacos. With a cold front predicted for Friday it sounded like a number of boats were headed into our destination, Hope Town - just east of Marsh Harbour, for moorings so we decided to hightail it up there so we wouldn't lose the mooring which we had reserved earlier.

We arrived in Hope Town around 3:00 Thursday. This joined us up with Mystique's track on our chartplotter from the spring of '08, and completed our 'circumnavigation' of the Bahamas. It was nice to be back in familiar territory where we had enjoyed sailing with our friend Bob Bruce in tandem with his boat, and Andy's company when he crewed with us from Florida to here and flew home from Marsh Harbour.

Hope Town was first settled by white British Loyalists escaping the US after the Revolt in 1780. It is a quaint little harborside village with pink, white and blue cottages and many descendants of those first settlers. Plus many 2nd homeowners, yachties and tourists. Quite a different scene than quiet George Town, Exuma! And a LOT more money here.

Another front is hitting us tomorrow with 25-30kt winds and some rain, so we're sitting right here in this snug harbor on our mooring until Sunday. WiFi, coffee shop, several harborside cafes and restaurants, and other boats around to keep us busy.

We have about 25 more miles to go to our final destination, Green Turtle Cay, where we plan to pack the boat up and have her hauled out of the water for the winter. She'll dry out and be ready for a new coat of bottom paint just before we come back in April to continue the Voyage of Mystique! There are several fun places where we can stop between here and there - Marsh Harbor, Man 'O War Cay and Great Guana Cay.

We hope to get some photos uploaded soon - will let you know when that happens.

Rock Sound Harbour, Eleuthera

Yesterday we sailed 42 miles from Warderick Wells Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters to Powell Point on the SW corner of Eleuthera, then up the Davis Channel NE over the banks down to the SE corner of Eleuthera Sound to the quiet community of Rock Sound. Winds, which started out at 10-12 kts died during the day to dead calm yesterday afternoon and overnight. It was very warm in the afternoon but cooled off to about 72 overnight which precipitated a very heavy dew over the boat. The sun has been up for two hours and the dew remains!

We have so far traveled 116 of the 180 nautical miles of our cruise from George Town, Exuma to Green Turtle Cay, Abaco. The weather has been very cooperative thus far with mild winds and clear days.

Our first two days out of George Town took us to Black Point on Great Guana over the Exuma Sound’s deep waters, then over the shallow, colorful banks to Staniel Cay and Big Major’s Spot. We went for a noontime swim in the beautiful Thunderball Grotto and dingy ride over to Pig Beach to see the swimming pigs. Then on to Sampson Cay, one of our favorite stops in the Exumas. After uploading photos, enjoying dinner ashore with another cruising couple, and a morning walk around the island we sailed north to the Exuma Land and Sea Park where we took a mooring just north of the HQ building. After a quick and peaceful overnight we set out at 7:30am for Eleuthera.

Mystique has been in the sparsely populated and gorgeous Exuma Island chain for the past year, and we shed a few tears as we watched the last of the islands slip from view astern. We’ve enjoyed these islands with both of our children and their spouses, shared Andy and Jessica’s beautiful wedding on the beach off George Town, enjoyed the company of visiting relatives, and befriended many locals and cruisers including David and Kathryn who have been so good to us.

As the 30 miles ticked by our thoughts turned to the upcoming two weeks and we began anticipating our upcoming stops and new adventures. Our first stop at Rock Sound began with some excitement. After walking through town to visit the Money Tree machine at Scotia Bank we stopped by a deli/hardware store where I overheard several locals discussing a fundraising project. I noticed two of them were wearing Rotary pins and asked if they were with a local Rotary club. Two hours later Jan and I were riding in a car north about 40 minutes to the weekly Rotary dinner meeting!! The club on Eleuthera was just chartered in June this year and we were among the first ten visitors. The BBQ rib dinner was prepared by Mariah Kary’s(sp?) chef on the island!

The person driving us to the meeting is the Principal of the Deep Creek Middle School, part of the Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute [ www.ceibahamas.org ], a progressive high school for native Bahamians and students from the United States who come over for experiential learning focused on the life of the sea around the Bahamas. The school offers tours on Fridays, very conveniently, so we’ll hitch hike the 20 miles down there for this afternoon’s tour.

Eleuthera is already proving to be a more populous and commercially successful place than Exuma. There are small villages scattered around the south end, with two larger and successful vacation hot-spots at the northern end: Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.(Dunmore Town). The long, skinny island has one main “Queen’s Highway” (two lane road) running from one end to the other connecting everyone together.

We’ll work our way up the west side of Eleuthera over the weekend then head for Spanish Wells, a bustling town on the NW side of the island, on Monday. After a few days there provisioning, taking on diesel, and doing laundry we’ll head over the Atlantic Ocean 60nm to the SE side of Great Abaco.